1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of networked file systems and personal computers. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method that allows personal computer users to access files over a network that are located on a remote computer system from any program on the local personal computer.
2. Background
Traditionally, most computers were used at work and may have been connected within a company by a local area network (LAN). The company's LAN may have been connected to other offices or partners of the company by a wide area network (WAN), or a company's computers may have been directly connected to a WAN. Such connections allow for companies to easily share data by storing and retrieving data on remote computers over private networks. In addition, remote disk storage available over a network is used to back up data from local computers, thus freeing up local disk space.
The internet is a publicly accessible global wide area network. The internet and personal computers have become ubiquitous in modern society. People regularly connect to web sites via their personal computer for any number of purposes. Although the internet has existed in various forms for many years, the internet only became popular as a mass communication vehicle with the introduction of the world wide web. The world wide web is, from the user's perspective, a way of easily identifying a remote computer, connecting to the remote computer, and viewing information stored on the remote computer. However, until recently, personal computer users have not used the internet and web sites for personal data storage and retrieval.
While using the internet, hidden from the user are the various communications protocols that make the internet function. Various committees and ad hoc groups known as working groups coordinate and control the internet. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol engineering and development arm of the internet. Working groups under the IETF determine the rules and protocols for the underlying functionality of the internet and publish them as requests for comment, commonly referred to as RFCs. Each working group makes its RFCs available via the internet at various web sites. A central point for obtaining the RFCs referenced below is the IETF's web site, ietf.org. (No mailing address or geographic location is provided by the IETF). In addition, an organization called the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been formed to continue the work of the IETF, although, the IETF and the W3C exist concurrently. (See w3c.org; The W3C may be contacted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Laboratory for Computer Science , 545 Technology Square, Cambridge, Mass. 02139).
Web sites are specified by a text description or name referred to as a uniform resource locator (URL) that is now encompassed by the term uniform resource identifier (URI). (See Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax, RFC 2396, August 1998, Draft Standard). Information is communicated over the word wide web via the transmission control protocol/internet protocol, commonly referred to as TCP/IP. (For more information see A TCP/IP Tutorial, RFC 1180, January 1991). An application level protocol running on top of TCP/IP that allows for accessing remote computers via the internet by specifying a URI is the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP, see HTTP/1.1, RFC 2616, June 1999, Draft Standard). It is the widespread acceptance and use of HTTP that has made the world wide web as we know it possible. Extensions to HTTP for distributed authoring and versioning via the world wide web, referred to as WebDAV, are beginning to be widely used. (See WebDAV, RFC 2518, February 1999, Proposed Standard). The WebDAV extensions to HTTP require that communication pursuant to the WebDAV protocol be formatted according to the extensible markup language (XML). (see XML 1.0 available from www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml). WebDAV allows persons using programs that support WebDAV to access files stored on a WebDAV enabled HTTP server, more commonly referred to as a web site. WebDAV provides for reading, writing (i.e., creating), partial reading, partial writing, locking, property changes, and other access to remotely stored files.
Various companies have begun offering internet users free storage space on remote servers. These remote servers are web sites running WebDAV enabled HTTP with additional software running to provide a web based interface to the disk space made available on the remote server . Companies such as Xythos Software, Inc. of Redwood City, California that provides a web site called Sharemation (www.sharemation.com), My Docs Online! Inc. of Naples, Florida (www.MyDocsOnline.com), and Driveway Corporation of San Francisco, Calif. (driveway.com) allow personal computer users to create a directory on the company's web site and store files for secure personal use. These companies provide any personal computer user access to a remote storage device and provide a facility that allows personal computer users to write files to and retrieve files from the remote computer, thus providing the same benefits that were historically only available to companies or businesses via private networks.
However, these public access storage companies do not provide a seamless way for a personal computer user to access remotely stored files from all application programs on their personal computer. The companies only allow a user to drag and drop or otherwise store files to or retrieve files from the web site when the user is outside of application programs. Some of the public access remote storage web sites allow for access from one specified application program via extensions to the application program, or require the application to be run in conjunction with an internet web browser (such as Internet Explorer 5.0 from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.). Although the companies provide remote storage for internet users, easy access is not provided for from all application programs on a personal computer.